A Daily Blog Featuring Jazz Age Music from the 20's and 30's and More!

Friday

MARCH 17TH

Alcide "Yellow" Nunez, Tom Brown, Frank Christian

BIRTHDAYS

1884

Alcide "Yellow" Nunez, clarinet

b. New Orleans, LA, USA.

d. Sept. 2, 1934.

Louisiana Five is of interest today mostly for the presence of their clarinetist Alcide "Yellow" Nunez. Nunez was born in New Orleans circa 1892 and in 1916 was a charter member of Stein's Dixie Jass Band, among the earliest of the white Dixieland bands to venture north to Chicago. The band would later morph into Original Dixieland Jazz Band under the leadership of cornetist Nick LaRocca. According to writer H.O. Brunn it was Nunez's unreliability compounded by heavy drinking that caused LaRocca to fire him on October 31, 1916, a scant few weeks before ODJB's landmark successes in New York City.

Nunez returned to New Orleans, replaced by Larry Shields, who would do something Nunez was never able to do or possibly unwilling to do, that was to find a place for the clarinet in the cornet led Dixieland ensemble. Nunez formed another band and returned to Chicago's Vernon Café but with little success.

About a year after the initial success of Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Nunez joined with New Orleans drummer and manager Anton Lada to form Louisiana Five. Joining the group were Brooklyn trombonist Charlie Panelli, who would be a fixture on the New York Dixieland scene through the early '20s where he would perform for extended periods with the Original Memphis Five and Original Indiana Five; pianist Joe Cawley; and banjoist Karl Berger. Starting in December 1918 for one year they would record over 50 sides, many original compositions, for Emerson, Columbia, Edison, Okeh, and even an unissued test for Victor. Nunez was modestly billed as "The World's Greatest Jazz Clarinetist" in the various Gotham venues they played.

Some of the Columbia Louisiana Five recordings enjoyed modest success but they never rivaled the sales of ODJB Victors. Shortly after the demise of Louisiana Five in early 1920, Nunez made recordings in association with Harry Yerkes, a New York recording pioneer who played a variety of percussion instruments. Some of the recordings also featured New Orleans trombonist Tom Brown. That association seems to have ceased in the same year. Anton Lada went on to lead dance orchestras and record for Emerson. His last recordings appear to have been made in Los Angeles in 1925 for the Sunset label.

In the mid-'20s, Nunez played through Texas and Oklahoma with his own quartet. One could speculate that Nunez's lack of success stemmed from his unwillingness to change his style by abandoning lead playing to the cornet. But Nunez unknowingly may have had some vindication when he was heard, according Charles Edward Smith, by a teenage Pee Wee Russell at the Elks Club in Muskogee, OK. The argument can be made that Russell's "un-clarinet"-like style may have derived originally from the stubborn old New Orleans veteran with his C Albert system clarinet refusing to surrender the lead. Although Smith's assertions were based on personal interviews with Russell, Robert Hilbert seems to have dismissed much of this in his biography of Russell written in 1993. Nunez returned to New Orleans in 1927 where he continued to work with local groups and was a member of the Police Band. He passed way on September 2, 1934, a forgotten man at the beginning of the swing era.

Some of the recordings of Louisiana Five have been reissued as part of potpourri sets like Timeless Historical's excellent From Ragtime to Jazz three-CD series.

né: Nathaniel Adams Coles.Exact year of birth unknown. He often used 1912, 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1919.

His father was the Reverend Edward James Coles Snr. His mother was Perlina Adams Coles. They had thirteen children, but only five lived to adulthood. Taught to play piano (by ear - he could never read music) by his mother, he was playing in his father's church at age 11. After graduating high school, he formed a trio (that included his brother). Nat later told interviewers that by the time he was 20, his music was "known in every beer joint in Los Angeles."

In time, the public took to Nat's singing voice, and he became a worldwide star. He recorded so many hits for Capitol Records that the label was often called "The House That Nat Built". Nat and President John Kennedy became friends, and Kennedy even attended Natalie Cole's debutante ball. In 1946, Nat started doing a weekly radio show, making him the first Black man to have his own radio (and later TV) show. He subsequently appeared in many movies.

In 1936, he was part of the touring show "Shuffle Along", and married one of the show's dancers, Nadine Robinson. His second marriage was in 1946, to Maria Ellington (no relation to the "Duke" - although she did once sing in the Duke's band). Their first child was Natalie Maria, born June 2, 1950, a few months before Nat's huge hit recording of "Mona Lisa" was released. A few years later, upon the death of Maria's sister and her husband, they adopted that couple's daugter, Carol (b. Oct. 17, 1944).

In 1959, thinking they would never have any more children of their own, Nat and Maria adopted a son whom they called Nat Kelly Cole. However on September 26, 1961, Maria gave birth to twin girls. Their names were Timolin and Casey. Timolin was a name suggested by a songwriter friend, while Casey was named after baseball celebrity Casey Stengel (Nat was an avid sports fan!). Among Nat's hit recordings are: "Unforgettable", "Mona Lisa", "When I Fall In Love", "Too Young", "Sweet Lorraine", "Love Letters", "For All We Know", "The Very Thought Of You", "Ramblin' Rose", and "Nature Boy".

Member of the Oregon (USA) group ' Patrick Dodd and Small Revolutions'

1915

Ray Ellington

Drums/Vocals/Leader

b. Kennington, London, England, UK

d. Feb. 27, 1985, London, England, UK.

(cancer).

né: Harry Pitts Brown.Ray Ellington has a last name that would seem to make him a natural part of the American jazz family, but in reality his background was quite different, and his major claim to fame would be most appropriately described as "something completely different." Although a hardworking part of the British jazz and rock scenes of the '50s and '60s, the African-born drummer, vocalist, and bandleader is known to most listeners as part of the auxiliary cast of The Goon Show, a madcap radio series that ran on the British Broadcasting Corporation for a nearly a decade beginning in the early '50s. The main three performers behind the show were the great comedian Peter Sellers, the versatile musician and performer Sir Harry Secombe, and goon-of-all-trades Spike Milligan. The latter comedian and writer had begun his professional performing career as a jazz trumpeter and was keen on the genre for his entire life, so it is no surprise that he would enlist the aid of a talented jazz performer such as Ellington to help create the memorable mixture of nutty humor and high-quality music that was one of the show's most original features.Another fine jazz musician who was part of the cast was the Dutch harmonica player Max Geldray. Working together with bandleader Wally Stott, these musicians were responsible for several musical interludes in each show, without which it is quite possible that many audience members might have died of non-stop laughter. Like all members of the show's staff, these musicians also took part in the skits themselves. In fact, it would be quite appropriate to list "long drawn-out African-sounding gibberish" as part of Ellington's instrumental credits, as this was a regular part of his contributions to various sketches. Bengali dialects, on the other hand, were the speciality of both Milligan and Sellers. Ellington took on a variety smaller roles in sketches, such as Chief Ellinga, Gladys, and the Red Bladder.Ellington's family immigrated to England when he was young, and he was an instructor in the Royal Air Force prior to embarking on his professional music career. He formed his original Ray Ellington Quartet in 1950, and was also known to millions through the radio program Mr. Ros and Mr. Ray. Ironically, his association with the Goons helped him sustain a musical career during an era when British Invasion rock & roll was vanquishing just about any kind of musical performer who did not possess a mop-top haircut and the ability to sing "yeah, yeah, yeah." Not that he stuck to straight jazz when exploiting the popularity of the Goons; he had chart singles in the early '60s, but these were rock and rhythm & blues numbers, some produced by the superb Joe Meek. In 1970, Ellington established the popular Ray Ellington Big Band & Singers. His son, singer Lance Ellington, took his place on a 50th anniversary special of The Goon Show in 2001. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi

1897Artur GoldArtur (Arthur) Gold (born 17 March 1897, Warsaw, died 1943 in Treblinka) was a Polish Jewish violinist and dance-music composer during the Interbellum. He closely collaborated with his brother Henryk Gold and with Jerzy Petersburski with whom he arranged music for his famous ensembles; they were among the most popular composers in interwar Poland and many of their hits were sung throughout the whole country. Gold ran an orchestra in the "Qui Pro Quo" theater (1922) and in the Warsaw "Adria" night club (1931–1939).LifeArtur Gold was the second son of Michał Gold, a musician in the Warsaw Opera; when Michał died an uncle took Artur to England, where he received his musical education. He later returned to Warsaw and played there for various venues including nightclubs. Some of his noted compositions were the foxtrot Gdy Petersburski razem z Goldem gra ("When Petersburski and Gold play together") (1926), the tango Gdy w ogrodzie botanicznym ("While in the botanical garden"), Jesienne róże ("Autumn roses"), Nie odchodź ode mnie (Don't walk away from me), Nie wierzę ci ("I don't trust you'"), Jaśminy (Jasmine), Kwiaciarka z Barcelony (Flower girl from Barcelona), Oczy czarne (Black Eyes), Ostatni jeszcze, and others. Most of the lyrics were by Andrzej Włast.

Artur Gold also performed with English orchestras in the 1920s and recorded for Columbia records. In the 1930s he also recorded several albums for the Polish "Odeon" record company.

Treblinka extermination campAfter the German and Soviet invasion on Poland in September 1939, Artur Gold was forced into the newly created Warsaw Ghetto, in which he played with an orchestra. He was deported by the Germans with thousands of fellow inmates who boarded the Holocaust trains at the Umschlagplatz in Warsaw, destined for the gas chambers of German Treblinka extermination camp. He was not killed upon arrival there in 1942. He played for the Nazis in their casino, at least on one occasion dressed as a clown. He was murdered in 1943 in Treblinka. According to recollections of some of the Treblinka survivors Gold might have been killed during the uprising at Treblinka which occurred on 2 August 1943.

Lovie is perhaps best recalled as Muddy Waters' final piano accompanist. Lee is also the adoptive father of harpist Carey Bell,

Best known as Muddy Waters' final piano accompanist, the sadly underrecognized Lovie Lee was a longtime staple of the Chicago club circuit. Born Eddie Lee Watson in Chattanooga, TN on March 17, 1909, he worked during the day as a factory woodworker, honing his skills each night in the Chicago blues clubs from the '50s onward; the adoptive father of harpist Carey Bell, he acquired an impressive local reputation over time, but was little known outside of the Midwest in spite of his association with Waters during the legend's final years. In 1984 and 1989, Lee recorded much of the material which later comprised his 1992 release Good Candy, which was rounded out by latter-day efforts cut with Bell; his lone solo release, it too garnered little notice. Lee died May 23, 1997.

BiographyHe was born in Alabama, but his parents moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was eight. It was in Pittsburgh that he became interested in jazz.He began on trombone in his teens after initially desiring to learn trumpet. However, his arms were considered long, so the school trained him in trombone as they needed trombonists more than trumpeters. In adulthood he worked with the United States Marines band, Lionel Hampton, and Duke Ellington. He became best known for his association with Count Basie, which began in 1962. He was lead trombone for Basie by 1970, but after that he took time off. He founded his own band in 1978 which he continued to lead even after returning to Basie's Orchestra in 1980. From 1995 until his death, he served as director of the Count Basie Orchestra. In that capacity he won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album twice.Mitchell was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008.Grover Mitchell | Biography | AllMusicAn Interview With Grover MitchellGrover Mitchell, 73, Trombonist And Leader of Basie OrchestraJazz House obituary

1895Andrzej WłastAndrzej Włast (aka Gustaw Baumritter) (17 March 1885 - 1942 or 1943) was a Polish Jewish songwriter. He wrote the lyrics for the 1929 hit song "Tango Milonga" / "Oh, Donna Clara". He died in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.BiographyWłast was born in Łódź. He studied law at Warsaw University, began writing for the Warsaw stage before 1920 at Mirage, Czarny Kot, Sfinks and others. When the Bolshevik army attacked Poland in 1920 he fought to defend Warsaw against the Red Army in Pilsudski's Legion.After 1921 he worked with the Stańczyk (The Jester) theater and then the famous Qui Pro Quo. In 1927 he founded his own revue, the Morskie Oko theater, which he managed until 1931. Later on, he managed the Rex revue and Wielka Rewia (The Grand Revue), each considered to be Polish versions of the Folies-Bergere.He was a prolific lyricist, sometimes called "The King of 'szmira' (cheap mass production of very low quality)" but there were"also pearls of pure poetry, as well as innumerable examples of sophisticated Jewish humor and gems of szmonces (shmontses), Polish Jewish self-mockery, albeit resting upon many stereotypes."He wrote Polish lyrics to the Jerzy Petersburski's 1929 international hit Tango Milonga, better known internationally as "Oh, Donna Clara". Bob Rothstein writes:

"One of the most successful of the Polish Jewish composers was Jerzy Petersburski (born Jerzy Melodysta, 1897–1979), whose 1929 hit Tango Milonga, renamed Oh, Donna Clara, swept Europe ... and the United States ... sung by Al Jolson in the 1931 Broadway show The Wonder Bar. ... The original Polish text of Tango Milonga was written by Andrzej Włast (born Gustaw Baumritter, 1885–1941), one of the best-known lyricists of the interwar period, who wrote other hit tunes with melodies by Petersburski [such as] Już nigdy (Never Again) and Ja się boję sama spać (I’m Afraid to Sleep Alone), and by other Jewish composers, such as Henryk Gold (1899–1977; Szkoda twoich łez (Don’t Waste Your Tears)), Artur Gold (1897–1943; Przy kominku (By the Fireplace)), Zygmunt Białostocki (1897–1942; Rebeka), and Fanny Gordon (pen name of Fania Markovna Kviatkovskaia, 1904–1991; Pod samowarem (By the Samovar))."

After the 1939 German invasion on Poland, Andrzej Włast was ordered in 1940 to live in the German-ordered Warsaw Ghetto. Some say that he was dragged out, like thousands of others, during a 1942 German action, to the Umschlagplatz and transported to Treblinka German death camp.Others say:

...that he hid on the so-called "Aryan" side, in a flat of one of Polish actresses he knew from his theatre. Being unable to stay most of the time alone in that microscopic shelter, and panicking at the slightest sign of the approaching steps, he finally ran out to the street, where he was immediately identified as a Jew and shot by a German soldier.

MICHAEL STEINMAN'S JAZZ LIVES!

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JAZZ AGE RADIO BROADCASTS!

That Gramophone Show showcases real music nostalgia when Neil Starr takes you on a trip down memory lane with music sourced exclusively off 78 RPM shellac records. Music covers anything from 1910 to the late 1950s. Radio Today (@Radio2Day) broadcasts on 1485 AM in Johannesburg and country-wide on DStv audio channel 869.

Join your host, Randy Brian, as he takes you on a time-travelling tour of the 1920s, '30s and '40s with hot jazz, dance bands, comedy and personality discs, big band swing, early blues, and other vintage records that keep alive the Spirit of 78. And there's a middle hour devoted to old-time radio drama and comedy, too.

Description:Glenn Robison's weekly, hour-long radio program of 1920s and 30s pop and jazz. Glenn plays 78 RPM records of "toe-tapping" music from hot dance bands, as well as sweet bands, novelty tunes, soundtracks, blues, jazz and more.

Description:Blues Before Sunrise showcases blues as part of a cultural landscape that includes jump and jive, rhythm and blues, swing, doo wop, gospel, comedy, and recitation, and never is the music presented as kitsch or retro fashion in the way that some music has been exploited and trivialized. For host Steve Cushing, the blues is a living African-American tradition with deep roots.LISTEN

THE IAN WHITCOMB SHOW is a rip-roaring rollercoaster of music from the golden age of Tin Pan Alley and British Music Hall through classic country & western and early R&B up until the British Invasion of the 1960s.

Step into the Club every Friday evening for a sampling of music from "The Jazz Age" with Guy Rathbun. Across the spectrum of pop and jazz from the late teens to the early 1930s, this weekly series invites you the share in the talents and tales of the musicians and performers that created an unforgettable era.

RADIOLA! is foremost a program of the best pop and jazz from the 1920s and 1930s, music which is unavailable anywhere else on local airwaves. These recordings shimmer with wit and levity, brim with deep joy, and beat with the pulse of life.

Every Saturday afternoon, Rob Bamberger stacks his recordings on a luggage cart and makes his way across the river to WAMU and what he calls his perch in studio four. From 8 until 11 p.m., the air is filled with vintage jazz, swing, and big band recordings from the '20s, '30s, and '40s.

jazz [jaz]–noun1. music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvisatory, virtuosic solos, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to atonality.2. a style of dance music, popular esp. in the 1920s, arranged for a large band and marked by some of the features of jazz.3. dancing or a dance performed to such music, as with violent bodily motions and gestures.4. Slang. liveliness; spirit; excitement.